There are very few superstars in the world who can captivate audiences based on charisma alone, and Jackie Chan is one of them who has consistently done so for almost four decades. He teamed up with director Renny Harlin for Skiptrace, which is at best just a rehash of his old buddy movies that he made specifically in Hollywood.
Benny Chan (Jackie Chan) is a down-and-out Hong Kong police officer brooding over the death of his partner Yung (Eric Tsang) due to the machinations of the elusive mafia boss Matador. Samantha (Fan BIngbing) Yung's daughter works in the casino of her father's suspected murderer Victor Wong (Winston Chao). Enter the American fraudster Connor Watts (Johnny Knoxville), who gets Samantha into trouble with her boss and flees to Russia. In order to help Samantha, whom he had promised his partner to look after, Benny Chan sets out to bring Watts back to Hong Kong. This begins a roller coaster ride across two continents with all too familiar sequences that give you the feeling of déjà vu.
Jackie Chan looks 62 and has slowed down considerably, almost to the point that he looks like a shadow of his younger self. But he has lost none of his charm and manages to captivate the audience through his charisma alone. Most viewers didn't leave their seats until the bloopers were over, reinforcing the fact that Jackie still stands above his mediocre films. Johnny Knoxville isn't a bad foil for Jackie Chan, although his role and antics remind us of Owen Wilson's performance with Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon. Fan Bingbing, who played Blink in “X-Men Days of Future Past,” is charming and easy on the eyes. The rest of the cast, including Eric Tsang, Winston Chao and WWE wrestler Eve Torres, made their presence known.
One thing “Skiptrace” doesn't lack is its appealing visuals thanks to cinematographer Chan Kwok-Hung Lam Ching-Ying, whose lenses capture Mongolia's vast landscapes and other towering landscapes. The stunt choreography is well staged in all sequences, be it the collapsing shipyard, the fight with the Russian mafia or the underwater climax. The music department and the other technical departments have done their part and there is little room for complaint. The screenplay comes from Jay Longino and Ben David Grabinski, which is basically just a worse version of the films “Shaolin Knights” and “Rush Hour”. Director Renny Harlin, whose blockbuster credits include “Die Hard 2,” “Cliff Hanger” and “The Long Kiss Good Night,” is far from his best.
Verdict : You can watch Jackie Chan and some well-staged action scenes
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